Centerpiece to Open EtO Sterilization Plan in Tijuana

TIJUANA – Medical device contract manufacturing and sterilization company Centerpiece plans to open an ethylene oxide (EtO) sterilization plant in Tijuana during the first quarter of this year, the company informed.

The facility will add both high- and low-volume processing. The 140,000 ft2 plant is equipped with six Getinge low-temperature sterilizers and state-ofthe-art emissions control equipment, according to the Solana Beach, Calif.-based company. Its sterilization chamber configuration also uses chamber-specific preconditioning and aeration cells, moving product throughout the process via auto-pallet transfer systems.

Centerpiece’s manufacturing operation is in Rosarito focusses on class 2 device production and sterile-barrier packaging along with in-house sterilization processing.

“Too often, tier II & III medical devices are consumed by managing their supply chains and/or facing sterilization capacity threats,” said Centerpiece CEO Matt Jordan. “For the businesses that we also manufacture for, they are guaranteed EtO sterilization capacity. We want our customers to focus on R&D and innovation, sales, customer distribution, market penetration, etc., not managing production, sterilization and warehousing.”

Centerpiece may expand its contract manufacturing division into the Tijuana facility in 2022 or 2023, eventually employing several hundred workers. For now, the sterilization operation will employ about 50 people, with about half of the devices to be sterilized coming from within Mexico and the rest from the U.S.

Source: Border Now January 2021 edition